For years, Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, has longed for a photo opportunity with Donald Trump. In early 2025, Fico travelled to the CPAC conference in Washington, but left empty-handed. Plans to host peace talks in Bratislava between Vladimir Putin and Trump also came to nothing.
Slovakia has now signed a €15bn agreement under which a US company would build a new nuclear power plant in Slovakia. In Trump’s world, nothing comes for free, not even a photograph.
The following night, I was on the TV, waiting for the images of Fico’s meeting at Mar-a-Lago to emerge. While waiting, we discussed Trump’s new tariff threat against several European allies, including the UK, France and Germany, over Greenland. For Fico, an EU leader, it was the worst possible moment to be glad-handing with the US president.
It took 12 hours for the single image to appear – a strained-looking Fico next to a beaming, thumbs-up Trump. Fico explained in a social media video – his preferred method of communication – that they met “in Trump’s living room”. “They were interested in our positions because they know we are not Brussels parrots and that we have long expressed sovereign views,” Fico said. “We also did not avoid assessing the European Union. There was complete agreement in seeing the union as an institution in deep crisis.”
The reason for Fico’s look of strain emerged later in a Politico report that Fico had raised concerns about Trump’s “psychological state”, and described him as dangerous. He was said to have been left traumatised by the Florida meeting, reportedly claiming that Trump was “out of his mind”. The White House immediately dismissed the report as “fake news”, and within hours of its publication Fico denied making any such remarks, calling them “lies”.
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When I spoke to Matúš Kostolný, editor-in-chief of Denník N, about this bizarre trip, he remarked that “Fico behaves as if he were not the prime minister of an EU country.
“First he goes against the EU by visiting Moscow, then he meets Trump. Fico is a security risk for Slovakia and for Europe. He is alone, without allies or respect. He thinks only of himself.”
Pavol Demeš, the former foreign minister, told me: “At a time of rising Euro-American tensions, he seeks to portray himself as a leader with direct access to the most powerful politicians in the world.
“He does so in a way that deliberately deepens polarisation at home and abroad, pushing Slovakia into a position where strategic decisions become tools of personal power.”
Fico, who is slipping in the opinion polls along with his coalition partners, will find it increasingly difficult to defend his position. Even the vast majority of his own voters recognise the toxicity associated with Trump. According to an Ipsos poll, a year ago Trump enjoyed the trust of 60.6% of Fico supporters. That figure has now plunged to just 15.7%, while 73.5% say they do not trust the US president.
Only a few years ago, Fico was fiercely attacking the US and accusing the previous Slovak government of being too close to Washington.
Fico’s latest trip to Trump’s America may carry heavy costs: not only for Slovak taxpayers, but also by further weakening the country’s European alignment. And it may cost him domestically, both in the short and long term. He may protest that he is not the EU’s parrot, but Fico is increasingly beginning to look like Trump’s.
Branislav Ondrášik reports for the Slovak daily SME
